Frocktasia on the road

Yesterday was a big day for me; it was the first time I took Frocktasia on the road and left the comfort zone of my home office and computer screen behind.

It's kind of strange that someone who has spent most their adult life working in hospitality, should be at all nervous about the face-to-face aspect of selling at markets but quite frankly, I was bricking it!

For years I've been the bighearted barmaid who's always ready to have a chat about anything to anyone but for some bonkers reason when it came to doing the very same thing for myself, punting something other than beer, I felt as if I was facing Everest.

It's some sort of weird-ass personality paradox going on here I'm sure.

However, I cannot remain a home-office strummer if I want to become a proper frockstar, I have to grab the scary bull by its horns and override my inexplicable hang-ups.

Yesterday was the first step in that direction and a step well worth taking!

I'm such a fusspot worrier so I got about half an hours sleep the night before. 

Here I am setting up in the morning and being quite nervous about it all... 

I should have brought more knick-knacks to dress my table as it did look a little bit bare.

I'm going play around with table dressing at home before the next outing... 

There are certainly a few things that I will be doing differently next time.

I ran out of time (read: was struck down by a bad case of bone idle laziness) before I could mark up all my items individually, so I just went out and bought a packet of neon star labels and divided my stock into four price categories (£3/£5/£10/£20).

Next time I'll do something like this instead, it looks a wee bit more professional...

Some of Jet's lovely vintage blouses.

My stall neighbor, the lovely Leslie is a real professional when it comes to setting up an inviting stall I think you'll agree... 

 Leslie is a regular seller at the vintage jumble but she also organizes The Dandy Lion Market at The Oxford in Kentish Town on the first Saturday of every month.

I'm popping along to check it out next week if anyone is interested in coming along?

Leslie makes fabulous scatter cushions and hot water bottle covers from recycled vintage fabrics and clothing...

Here she is tempting me with an awesomely groovy vintage blouse that

I would have snapped up in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact that I was under strict instructions not to buy anything...

The Boogaloo is a really cool pub and even though yesterday wasn't exactly heaving customer wise we still had a fab time. There's a DJ playing all day, you can get some seriously scrumptious looking cake and of course beer...who ever came up with the idea of having a vintage market in a pub should be given a medal!

 Some more of my fellow jumblers and their fabulously dressed stalls...

 Besides Leslie's poppy print blouse, I would have loved to buy that stunning green and gold caftan...

 Mark was kind enough to come along and hung around all day to give me moral support, what a star :)

Speaking of stars, I had a very special visitor...

Lovely Sara from Hello The Mushroom popped in with her friend Iain and that really made my day. 

Even though we've never met before I felt instantly at ease, she's got a smile like a thousand sunbeams and it was a real shot in the arm that she came along. 

I hope that we can meet up again soon for some bloggy charity shopping  perhaps?!

Sara has got an amazing blog that I couldn't recommend highly enough, it makes for great reading and she takes delightful photos too, a perfect mix in my opinion, if you are not already a follower, you are missing out!

So you may very well be wondering if I will be able to retire on my takings of the day...

Nope, but it was the perfect gentle start to my face-to-face selling career.

I met some really lovely people and I now know what I can improve on until next time cause there will definitely be a next time...hopefully very soon :)

Today I slept in until late & then we popped to the park to feed Lilo.

I think she recognizes my voice now, cause when we arrived she was down by the pond drinking but when I called for her she came running up to us waiting for me to bring my baggie of seed out. She eats straight out of my hand and she's not scared of me at all. Every few days I bring the birds some finely chopped fresh greens too, they absolutely love it.

Here is today's ensemble:

Vintage 50s velvet jacket, 60s maxi dress, two pairs of tights, 90s skirt  (worn as underskirt as it was decidedly Baltic out there today), 90s velvet boots, velvet gloves, sequin beret & spiderweb print scarf.

I hope you've all had a fab & funderful weekend!

I'm off to check out what you've all been up to on your blogs now...see ya!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx